How to bring Rob Ford’s transit plan into reality

We should beg, borrow or steal to finish what was started instead of settling for second best.

Dedication ceremonies to mark the official start of construction of the Yonge Street subway took place on Sept. 8, 1949. That first subway line was built long before there were requisite ridership levels to justify it.

By:Gordon J. Chong Published on Thu Jan 06 2011

After the post-election euphoria and political posturing of the new administration in the Twin Towers on Queen St., as well as the belated recognition up at the Pink Palace that Mayor Rob Ford does indeed have a significant mandate to move ahead on his promise to take as much public transit off the roads as possible, it seems the discussions taking place between the Ford people and the McGuinty people are starting to bear fruit.

And with Councillor Karen Stintz now ensconced as the new chair of the TTC, she is adroitly managing the issue in a mature manner.

With this latest development and the premier’s commitment to overhaul the social assistance system, there is now a compelling case to move forward as quickly as possible.

If it is truly the objective of the provincial government to ease the plight of the least-advantaged, then Transit City should be revamped and the TTC declared an essential service with appropriate conditions.

Wherever possible, transit should be below ground or elevated above it. However, the Sheppard subway should be extended to its original destination planned as a transit hub more than 20 years ago — the Scarborough Town Centre — so that it can link with the TTC and GO buses that now use it.

Transit-dependent riders from Scarborough are yearning for a convenient, fast, one-seat ride to relieve them of their current, slow, multi-transfer, multi-modal daily ride to and from work. And a subway is the most likely way to attract the discretionary rider out of the car.

Metrolinx says the ridership doesn’t justify an extension of the Sheppard subway, but more than 60 years ago the Yonge subway was started long before there were the requisite ridership levels to technically justify it.

The architects of the Bloor Viaduct also had the foresight to incorporate the infrastructure for a future subway. Where would we be today without those visionaries of the past?

We need visionaries now to imagine a Toronto 50 to 100 years into the future.

We should beg, borrow or steal to finish what was started instead of settling for second best simply because it was on sale.

Financial constraints have been cited ad nauseam by various levels of government. Their pleadings might have more traction if they weren’t constantly dredged up. However, funding then miraculously appears for some other vote-getting initiative.

Worse still, an auditor general reports on the enormous sums that are wasted or mismanaged annually, leaving the mendacious politicians with egg on their collective faces.

We should “steal” from those latent pots of money identified by the auditor general to build the Sheppard subway to the future.

The Finch Ave. West LRT should be scrapped in favour of a bus rapid transit service in the Finch hydro corridor using state-of-the-art highway coaches.

For those who need to go farther west after coming from Scarborough, the minor inconvenience of transferring to the Yonge subway to Finch would be tolerable if they can then zip along the corridor unhindered in a comfortable bus.

The Jane/Finch area would benefit sooner if this were done. This route could also service those coming south from York Region. Sections of the bus service could be extended incrementally as required. The Finch station, like the Scarborough Town Centre, is a hub for GO Transit and the TTC.

The current proposed Eglinton LRT could be a stand-alone project. A request for proposals could be issued for the design, building, financing, maintenance and operation of the line. A more cautious, palatable alternative would be to retain control over its management and operations.

If our politicians can envision a better future for those transit-captive social assistance recipients in Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods, they will find the means to finance it. Otherwise, the disadvantaged in our midst will be left wasting precious time transferring from the bus to the LRT and then to the subway in the wind, rain, snow and sleet.

The latest emerging spirit of compromise from both the Ford administration and Metrolinx (the province) is encouraging because it means we will likely see some improvements for the transit-captives and the discretionary users as well as for the economy of the GTA sooner rather than later.

Gordon Chong, a former chair of GO Transit and vice-chair of the TTC, was a member of Rob Ford's transition team.

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